This site is a sort of museum in cyberspace full of odds and ends about life in Budleigh Salterton.
It celebrates among other things the connection between our corner of East Devon - birthplace of both Sir Walter Raleigh and Roger Conant, founder of Salem, Massachusetts - and the United States of America.
The site was inspired by the friendship link established in 2001 with the Cape Cod community of Brewster.

Saturday, 22 August 2015

Another view of the Great War: Exmouth Museum

Visitors
seeking local memories of the 1914-18 world conflict have only another six
weeks to go until the main season ends at Fairlynch on Sunday 27 September.

Our
Great War exhibition can be seen again briefly when the Museum re-opens during
the school half-term before finally being dismantled. But our neighbours in Exmouth – all
volunteers just as in Budleigh – staged their own Great War display and their
museum remains open until the end of October.

Exmouth
is just a few miles along the coast from Budleigh Salterton. So it’s no
surprise to find, from a rummage in the archives, that at least a dozen men
associated with the Lower Otter Valley who died on active service during World
War One also had links to the larger town.

As
at Fairlynch, there are photos of local men who served in the conflict.

Among
them is Private Arthur Palmer, pictured above, recorded as having died at the Battle of Loos on
25 September 1915. He’s described in Exmouth Museum’s ‘Faces of the Great War’
panel as living with his wife on Halsdon Road in the town.Born in East Budleigh, he is listed on the
war memorial in that village. But his
name appears also on Exmouth’s and Seaton’s!*

There’s a fine display of the medals won by some of these men.

Exmouth
Museum must have been delighted to be given by his widow the medal ribbons worn by the
noted WW1 flying ace Douglas Carbery MC, DFC (1894-1959). A British Artillery officer, he was credited with six aerial victories
while attached to the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. He later returned to the artillery, and
commanded an anti-aircraft brigade during World War II, retiring with the rank
of brigadier.

Pride
of place in the Exmouth Museum display goes to the town’s two VCs.

Featured above is Flight
Sub-Lieutenant Reginald Warneford of the Royal Naval Air Service. He won his award
on 7 June 1915 for destroying a German airship, but died in a flying accident
ten days later. The epic tale of how he destroyed Zeppelin No 37 is well worth
a read.

Two years ago, Reginald Warneford’s name was in national
headlines after a government ruling that only British-born Victoria Cross recipients would be honoured with commemorative paving stones in their home towns, and
Warneford had been born in Darjeeling, India.

Warneford's own drawing of his downing of the Zeppelin

A
vigorous media campaign to reverse the ruling led to the laying of a special
memorial flagstone during a VC dedication service at the Strand Gardens,
Exmouth on Sunday 7 June 2015 – exactly 100 years after Warneford’s award-winning
mission.

Just as absorbing is the story of the bravery of the Royal Navy’s Lieutenant
Richard Douglas Sandford, who was born in Exmouth.

Pictured above, he won his VC for his
command of submarine C3 in the daring raid on the port of Zeebrugge on the
night of 23 April 1918.

There
are helpfully informative notices in Exmouth Museum’s exhibition about episodes
of the Great War such as the Gallipoli campaign...

... and even detailed explanations
of how such hierarchies as infantry battalions were organised.

Among
the wartime artefacts I noticed this tank crew mask looking like medieval chain
mail.

And
this vest pocket camera was
one of a best-selling folding camera series made by Kodak from 1912 to 1926.
Many remarkable photographs were taken by soldiers before the War Office issued
its instruction banning cameras from the trenches in March 1915.

A neatly crafted example of ‘trench art’ on display is this cribbage board,
made from a WW1 shell casing.

There’s
a lot more to see in Exmouth’s Great War display. Don’t miss it. For more information about the
Museum click on

About Me

Born in 1946, in Birmingham UK, of Scottish-Irish parentage, and brought up as a Roman Catholic. Early education may have driven me into teaching, in the belief that schools should offer a more enjoyable experience for children. Studied French at London University, specialising in 16th century literature. Then came 34 years of teaching French, along with red herrings and common sense, at Oundle School, Northamptonshire. Published articles in Etudes Rabelaisiennes, (a long time ago), and a couple of books - one big 'Oundle's War' (1995) - and one small 'The Scientist in The Cottage' (2013) - a biography of Henry Carter FRS (1813-95). Dabbles, and some people say meddles, in many areas. A passionate gardener, moved to Devon partly to grow ericaceous plants more easily. Other interests include family, cycling, walking, photography, reading, music, studying butterflies, chopping wood, DIY, playing on the scaffold tower, and networking for the Greater Good. Married to Anthea for over 40 years. Three children: Emily, Simeon and Rosanna, three granddaughters and two Bengal cats. Like an increasing number of my friends of my generation, I'm a cancer survivor – I hope!